Hamas Landslide Changes Face of Palestinian Politics

By LIAM CHRISTOPHER Daily Post Correspondent

THE Islamic militant group Hamas won a landslide victory in Palestinian parliament elections, winning 76 seats in the 132- member parliament, election officials announced yesterday.

The rival Fatah Party, which controlled Palestinian politics for four decades, won 43 seats.

Palestinian leaders, stunned by the militant group’s sweeping victory, came together to determine the shape of a new government as world leaders insisted Hamas renounce violence and recognise Israel’s right to exist.

Israeli politicians from across the political spectrum said there could be no relations with a group that has been responsible for scores of deadly attacks against Israelis and is listed as a terror organisation by the US and the European Union.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and his Cabinet resigned yesterday morning, even before the official results were announced, and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was to ask Hamas to form the next government.

The top Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, told Abbas his group is ready for a political partnership, Hamas said.

And in a first sign of pragmatism, Mahmoud Zahar, a top Hamas official, said the group would extend its year-old truce if Israel reciprocates.

“If not, then I think we will have no option but to protect our people and our land,” he said.

US President George Bush said that the US will not deal with Palestinian leaders who dispute Israel’s right to exist.

“If your platform is the destruction of Israel, it means you’re not a partner in peace, and we’re interested in peace,” Bush said.

Israel’s acting foreign minister Tzipi Livni asked the EU not to deal with a “terror government.”

Fatah legislator Saeb Erekat said the party does not want to join a Hamas government.

Abbas was elected separately a year ago and remains president.

However, the Palestinian leader has already said that he would resign if he could no longer pursue his peace agenda. In the southern Gaza town of Rafah, supporters shot in the air and handed out candy. Others honked horns and waved Hamas flags from car windows.

Supporters of the two main parties briefly scuffled in the West Bank town of Ramallah after Hamas supporters raised their party’s green flag over the Palestinian parliament.

The two sides threw stones at each other, breaking windows in the building, as a small group of Fatah supporters tried to lower the Hamas banner. The crowd of about 3,000 Hamas backers cheered and whistled as activists raised the flag again.

Leaders around the world were shocked by Hamas’ victory, with Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urging the Islamic militant group Hamas to reject violence and recognise Israel following its success.

“Hamas has to understand that with democracy goes renunciation of violence,” Straw said on a visit to the Turkish capital Ankara.

Leader offers to extend truce with Israel